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Universal Credit was underpaid by £30m last year
The Department for Work and Pensions underpaid Universal Credit by £30m last year, two-thirds of which was down to ‘official error’.
New government figures revealed that in 2017/18 the benefit was underpaid at a rate of 1%, a figure that has remained steady since data of this type was first recorded for Universal Credit in 2015/16.
Of the £30m that went underpaid, £20m was down to official error with the rest being attributed to claimant error. Half of the underpayments fell under the category of housing costs.
Universal Credit was also overpaid by £270m, £170m of which was due to fraud and £80m because of official error.
The ‘Fraud and Error in the Benefit System’ figures, released annually, show a total of £3.8bn (2.2%) of benefit expenditure was overpaid, and £1.9bn (1.1%) was underpaid in 2017/18.
Universal Credit has the highest rate of overpayments of any benefit type, while Personal Independence Payment (a replacement of Disability Living Allowance) has the highest underpayment rate.
A DWP spokesperson said: “Last year we recovered £1.1bn in overpaid benefits and since 2010 there has been no increase in the rate of fraud and error. We are delivering improvements to detection, prevention and recovery which will impact future results.
“In addition, Universal Credit will reduce losses to fraud, error and overpayments by around £1bn per year when it is fully rolled out.”
